One of the great surprises of the Peek Performance event was the reveal of the M1 Ultra, the powerful chip included in the Mac Studio. Apple has said that its new SoC outperforms the most powerful Core i9 processor, although such power includes a slight drawback: the M1 Ultra adds more weight to the team.
After reviewing the specifications in the product page we find that the Mac Studio with M1 Max weighs 2.7 kg, while with M1 Ultra reaches 3.6 kg. The website just says that step varies by configuration and manufacturing processhowever, Apple revealed why the Mac Studio with M1 Ultra is heavier.
Those from Cupertino entrusted TheVerge that the reason why the M1 Ultra adds more weight to the final product It has to do with the cooling system.. The new chip uses a larger copper heatsink, while the M1 Max opts for an aluminum one.
Copper is usually the usual choice for heat sinks and is heavier than aluminum, though in the case of Mac Studio, the hardware design matters more. Despite the fact that desktop computers do not have the size limitation of an iPhone, Apple has been faithful to its ideology of delivering a powerful device in a compact format, similar to the Mac mini.
Although the M1 Ultra’s heat sink is larger, the Mac Studio’s chassis is identical for both chips
In terms of dimensions, the Mac Studio with M1 Max and M1 Ultra are identical. The chassis measures 19.7 cm wide and deep, by 9.5 cm high. Both include a 370W power supply, ruling out the theory that a larger power supply would add 900g to the final weight.
Heat dissipation has always been an important issue in high performance computers. In the case of Mac Studio, it must be approached from a different perspective, since it uses a chip with a different architecture than the most powerful processors or graphics cards on the market.
The secret of the M1 Ultra lies in its efficiency. Apple claims that its chip offers 90% more multithread performance than the Intel Core i9-12900K while consuming 100 watts less. Similarly, it can match an RTX 3090 while requiring 68% less power than NVIDIA’s most powerful GPU.
To achieve this, Apple packed two M1 Max chips inside the M1 Ultra. Engineers designed the M1 Max with the ability to connect to another identical chip using a packaging architecture called UltraFusion.
Using a process similar to chiplet, the processors are connected by a silicon intercom that offers high bandwidth and low latency. The two processors operate as one and offer 16 high-performance and 4 high-efficiency cores, a 48-core GPU, and support for up to 128GB of unified memory.
The Mac Studio with M1 Ultra will be available from March 18 at a price of €4,629.00 or $106,999.00 pesos. The option with M1 Max will be offered for €4,629.00 or $106,999.00 pesos.